The phenomenon of increasingly visible groups of immigrant entrepreneurs raises a host of questions. What are the causes of immigrant entrepreneurship? What are its consequences, especially as regards upward mobility and inter-ethnic relations? And what accounts for differences in entrepreneurship among ethnic groups? Ethnic Economies provides a broad overview of ethnicity and entrepreneurship, connecting it with broader studies of economic life.

Diaspora

...their book is the most important attempt so far to provide a synthetic and coherent description of what is known on immigrant's business activities in the United States,in terms of both empirical findings and theoretical explanations. Ethnic Economies is elegantly written and manages to remain very clear despite the complexity of the ideas discussed and the abundance of empirical data. It thus constitutes a valuable introduction for non-specialists as well as a stimulating and useful tool for those who are familiar with the subject... The recent production of recapitulative works on what we know on ethnic economies is symptomatic,and Light and Gold's Ethnic Economies is the most notable and comprehensive review of the literature so far.